Installation

vncdotool is available on PyPI, so in most cases you should be able to simply run:

pip install vncdotool

vncdotool relies on a number of libraries, the two major ones are PIL, the Python Imaging Library and Twisted, an asynchronous networking library. While vncdotool should work with any recent version of these libraries sometimes things break. If you are having issues getting things to work you can try using a stable set of libraries and if you aren’t already using it, and you should be, use a virtualenv.:

pip install virtualenv
virtualenv venv-vncdotool
# XXX requirements.txt from vncdotool source tree
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e .

Windows

If you are not familiar with Python, the most reliable way to install vncdotool is to use binary packages. Currently, (Oct 2013) PIL only provides 32bit binary packages for Windows, so you will need to install a 32bit python.

  1. Download and install python-2.7.5.exe from the Python Downloads website

  2. Open up Powershell, and paste in the following:

    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "$env:Path;C:\Python27\;C:\Python27\Scripts\", "User")
    
  3. Restart your Windows Machine

  4. Upon Restart, go to the Twisted Downloads and get and install 32bit Twisted, Twisted-13.1.0.win32-py2.7.exe

  5. Download and install PIL-1.1.7.win32-py2.7.exe, from PIL Downloads.

  6. Download ez_setup.py and get_pip.py and save them to your Python/Scripts folder, C:\Python27\Scripts

  7. Open up Powershell and type the following:

    pip install pip --upgrade
    pip install distribute
    pip install setuptools --upgrade
    pip install Twisted --upgrade
    pip install vncdotool < -- Finally install vncdotool
    
  8. At a Powershell prompt:

    vncdo.exe --server som.eip.add.res type "Hello World"
    
  9. If Hello World shows up on the remote machine that has a VNC server running then its time to celebrate. Otherwise, first check you can connect from your local machine to the remote using a normal GUI VNC Client. Once you get the normal GUI client working try vncdotool again and if you still have problems contact sibson+vncdotool@gmail.com.